Airing in primetime for the first time in 24 years, the Gator Bowl hit a three-year high. Also: the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry continues to sink; Baylor’s upset of UConn gave ESPN a boost; the EPL hit a weekday high on NBCSN.
Gator, Liberty, Military Bowls Hit Highs
Monday’s Texas A&M-NC State Gator Bowl earned 5.14 million viewers on ESPN, up 16% from last year (Mississippi State-Louisvlle: 4.42M), up 94% from 2016 (Georgia Tech-Kentucky: 2.65M), and the largest audience for the game since the 2015-16 season (Georgia-Penn State: 5.87M). It was the first Gator Bowl to air in primetime since 1994. Ratings were not immediately available.
Earlier in the day, ESPN drew 3.83 million for the Oklahoma State-Missouri Liberty Bowl (+11%) and 2.66 million for the Cincinnati-Virginia Tech Military Bowl (+30%). The Liberty Bowl was the most-watched since the 2015-16 season and the Military Bowl the most-watched since 2014.
In other New Year’s Eve action, FS1 drew 1.79 million for the Northwestern-Utah Holiday Bowl (+11%).
Shifting to the broadcast networks, ABC drew a 1.65 rating and 2.55 million (-14%) for last Saturday’s South Carolina-Virginia Belk Bowl, marking the smallest audience for that game since at least 2005. Figures for the Citrus Bowl on ABC, San Francisco Bowl on FOX and Sun Bowl on CBS were not immediately available.
Kentucky-Louisville Plunges on ESPN2
Last Saturday’s Kentucky-Louisville men’s college basketball game had a 0.6 rating and 1.09 million viewers on ESPN2, marking the lowest rated and least-watched game between the rivals since at least 2012. Ratings fell 54% from last year’s game, which aired on CBS (1.3). The last time the rivals met on ESPN2, 2014, the game had a 2.1 and 3.5 million viewers.
UConn-Baylor Up From Men’s Game in Same Window Last Year
Thursday’s UConn-Baylor women’s college basketball game drew 627,000 viewers on ESPN, up 15% from an Arizona-Utah men’s game in the same window last year (545K). It was not the most-watched game of the season, trailing UConn’s win over Notre Dame in a #1 vs. #2 matchup last month (670K).
EPL Hits Weekday High
NBCSN scored 542,000 viewers for Thursday’s Liverpool-Manchester City English Premier League match, a figure that rises to 614,000 with streaming included — the largest audience for a weekday EPL match since New Year’s Day 2015. That excludes matches that benefited from an Olympic lead-in.
